A haphazard chronicle of my inevitable misadventures during a year in Vietnam and points east.

p.s. I'll be pitifully grateful if you send me email during my exile: TravelerKaty@hotmail.com

October 2002 November 2002 December 2002 January 2003 February 2003 March 2003 April 2003 May 2003 June 2003 July 2003 August 2003 September 2003 October 2003 November 2003 February 2006 March 2006 May 2006

 
At first glance, Cambodia looked exactly like Vietnam. Which is to be expected, since I was just continuing a boat trip up the Mekong, and the climate and economy is basically the same.

But differences did emerge. The rickety shacks on stilts are a bit ricketier in Cambodia, though there were many more solidly built stilt houses right along side the ones that looked like they would teeter over in a big wind. Some of the nicer houses actually featured wooden siding, real glass windows and sturdy 12" x 12" support poles mounted in cement.

Along the highway, many Cambodians are engaged in some sort of commerce involving the prominent display of old, very dirty soda bottles. Many were displayed empty, and others were filled with yellow, red or green liquid. It could be my Vietnam experience that leads me to believe that all roadside mysteries are motorbike-related, but I suspect the yellow liquid is gasoline. I am notably inept and underinformed when it comes to vehicles, so I have no clue what the red and green might be.

Motorbikes are common, but don't dominate the landscape as they do in Vietnam. In the cities Thai-style tuk-tuks are a common sight, ferrying tourists around in colorful roofed carts pulled behind motorbikes. In the countryside a different type of vehicle is in use as a local bus. It basically looks like a motorbike hauling a wooden boat on a trailer, but actually consists of a colorful narrow boat-shaped cart on two wheels with boards nailed across the top for passengers to sit on. The whole contraption was connected to the back end of your standard motorbike. Those things must be more powerful than they look.

It is also clear that the Cambodians take religion a lot more seriously than the Vietnamese, and their many temples are much more influence by India and Thailand than China. Which is just as well for me, since I was getting kind of tired of the Chinese-style pagodas and temples in Vietnam. I'll try to overcome this temple fatigue when I get to China in a couple of weeks.

The other notable thing about Cambodia was the large number of signs advertising the Cambodian People's Party. They were the first thing I noticed, actually, huge blue signs on long poles in front of various homes and businesses. They look very official, like road signs, and when I saw the first one I thought it must be local party HQ. But after the 10th or 15th of these, plus a handful of similar signs advertising other political parties, I decided they must be the Cambodian equivalent of yard signs. If so, they need a consultant, because they're all facing the road, in such a way that accidents will be caused if a driver tries to read one.

Since I only spent about 13 hours in Phnom Penh, the capital city, I'll save any description for when I come back through on my way to Saigon at the end of the trip. Due to Heike's imminent arrival from Seattle, I caught the fast boat to Siem Riep, the town just outside the temples of Angkor Wat. You know how I mentioned recently that I had a new love of boat travel? Asia constantly tests my good nature. This boat was seriously, dangerously overcrowded, and I'm pretty sure there were few, if any, lifevests aboard. There were maybe 50 people down below, and another sixty of us on the roof, mostly slathered with 45 SPF sunblock and hoping that 5 hours would go quickly. As a late arrival, both the interior and the roof were crammed by the time I arrived, so I got stuck in the small area right in front of the engine. Lordy, talk about loud. Thankfully, in an uncharacteristic fit of good planning, I had put some ear plugs in my daypack, otherwise my ears might still be ringing.

The ride was 5 hours of (loud) tedium, for the most part, as the river is wide, the landscape is flat and unchanging, and we spent a great deal of time Tonle Sap Lake, a body of water so large that we didn't see land in any direction for almost 2 hours. Despite my usual crotchety grumbling, no matter how loud and boring this boat trip was, it was far better than 12 hours of spine-crushing busride on sketchy Cambodian roads.

© 2003 Katy Warren



posted by Katy at 1:54 AM